Private equity offloads stake in Anglian Water

The infrastructure fund of listed private equity group 3i has agreed to sell its stake in UK utility company Anglian Water to a joint venture of council pension funds. 3i Infrastructure, which is selling the stake to Dalmore Capital and GLIL Infrastructure, bought its interest in Anglian Water in 2007. Investors in Yorkshire Water, which supplies water and sewage services to about 5m people and 130,000 businesses, have also put their stakes up for sale. Last week Ofwat, the UK's water regulator, confirmed plans to limit the financing costs that water companies can recover from customers in a five-year period starting in 2019. Britain's privatised water companies have come under pressure for ramping up debt and paying out big dividends while failing on water leakage and pollution targets.